Grannyhero

Why Netflix Values Diversity
Wednesday 24th August 11:30

Dorothy Ghettuba is Netflix’s Director of Local Language Series in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dorothy has been tasked with working with African creatives to tell and take African stories to the rest of the world. Joining Netflix over two years ago, Dorothy has looked after the growing Netflix portfolio of local language original series programming for scripted series in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. 

Dorothy is a renowned creative in Africa and co-founder of the Nairobi-based Spielworks Media, an African production company launched in 2009 and has won many accolades for 18 television shows, 20 web shows and over 40 movies. Some of her renowned projects include a popular Kiswahili TV show, Penzi la Sumu. Other films that she has produced are Lies that Bind, Saints and Higher Learning In 2016, she was named among C. Hub magazine's 100 most influential creative personalities.

Dorothy is also a 2016 Archbishop Tutu Fellow with the African Leadership Institute who has created multiple TV projects and is currently dedicated to developing creative talent, creating quality content and telling authentic African stories that resonate and engage audiences.  She also currently serves as the chairperson of  the Kenya Film Commission.

Cultivating your Creative Career & Company
Thursday 25th August 15:30 

David is the SVP Creative at DNEG Animation. With a career spanning over three decades, he has served as creative supervisor on a wide range of award-winning projects, including 'What Dreams May Come', 'Fight Club', 'X-Men', 'Transformers', and 'Rise of the Guardians'

In addition to his creative achievements, David holds an impressive history of technical innovations, from creating the first 'L-system' tree ever to be used in VFX to designing a pre-vis system that allows for motion-control model sequences to be determined prior to shooting. He also closely collaborated with Erik Nash and Roger Deakins on the colour process for ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?’ — the first film to use an all-digital colour grading process.
Today, David oversees all aspects of Creative Production for DNEG Animation, devoting his energy, experience and technical vision to helping filmmakers bring new ideas to the screen.

Instagram Handle: @dneganimation
Twitter Handle: @dneg
Facebook Handle: @dnegvfx

Panel Discussion
Friday 26th August 13:30

Kgosi Emang Ntono, also known as ‘King’ is a creative writer, conceptualizer, 3D animator futurist enthusiast and a vibrant energetic entrepreneur. After finishing matric he studied 3D animation and soon found employment at RVB advertising, few years later he moved to CRC media department as Creative Director for 8 years overseeing all TV content. In 2010 King won the NYDA Free State Business innovation challenges, he was invited to speaker at TEDx international conference organized by UFS in 2014, and shared a unique concept on creating African content. He then ventured into tyre recycling for 3 year and won best national manager ward in 2016.

In 2017 King launched KN Studios where he is living his dreams of creating African inspired content. TAKA Studios soon followed in 2018 where they are developing African content and merchandise for children. Currently he is working on Living Rocks which is a virtual graphic novel, Calabashes an animated series, Mula Monna and an online platform.

Diversity and Inclusion Strategies

Thursday 25th August  11:30 

Zulema joined the Inclusion Strategy team at Netflix in 2021 where she is supporting the Netflix Animation Studios.
Previous to Netflix, Zulema worked at The Walt Disney Company for nearly a decade, majority of which was spent supporting the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Zulema joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2011 initially as part of the recruitment team and then transitioned into the Talent Development and Outreach department where she focused on expanding talent pipeline streams to include historically marginalized communities. In 2016, she joined the Human Resources team at WDAS focusing on Diversity & Inclusion, Talent Planning, Leadership Development and Mentorship.

Zulema is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach where she double majored in International Business and Marketing.

Building the matrix city of machines using USD across Maya's Tool Set Technology
Thursday 25th August  12:30

JP is an experienced technical director with a demonstrated history of working in the animation industry. Skilled in 3D graphics, computer animation, video compositing and music production. Strong business development professional with a focused in Media & Entertainment industry, Interactive Technology, Video, 3D Graphics and Special Effects

Linked in : https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-paul-giancarlo-88342429/
Twitter Handle: https://twitter.com/johnfreefly

Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival Talk
Thursday 25th August 10:30

Karabo Lediga is a writer, director and producer for television and film. Her short film, which she wrote and directed titled ‘What Did You Dream?’, premiered in competition at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and was also in competition at The Palm Springs International Short Film Festival amongst others. It won Best African Short at the Durban International Film Festival (2021). Karabo has written for the first African Netflix Original series, the spy thriller ‘Queen Sono’. Across 12 seasons of the two-time International Emmy nominated news satire show ‘Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola’ and three seasons of the comedy series ‘Next of Next Week’, Karabo worked as a writer, director, content producer and performer. 

Her directorial work also includes 2 seasons of the sketch comedy show ‘The Bantu Hour’, situational comedy ‘The Mayor’ and recently, Netflix’s six-part live stand-up comedy series ‘Only Jokes Allowed’.

Her TV writing work also includes South African Film and Television Award winning ‘Lockdown’, ‘MTV Shuga 5’ and the four-part miniseries ‘Emoyeni: Insanguluko’ and most recently as development writer for animated series 'Queens’ for Wild Sheep/Netflix Animation. She’s currently in development on her debut feature film titled ‘Sabbatical’. She’s a 2021 Berlinale Talents, Less Is More (Le Groupe Ouest) and Toronto International Film Festival Writers’ Studio alumni.

Instagram Handle: @karabolediga

Twitter Handle: @MissLed

Diversion and inclusion strategies
Thursday 25th August 11:30

Camille Eden joined Nickelodeon as Vice President, Recruitment, Talent Development and Outreach in January 2020, where she leads the recruitment for Nickelodeon Animation, finding and placing new talent that will help develop a growing slate of series and feature productions.

Prior to her current role, Eden spent nearly a decade at Walt Disney Animation Studios as a talent acquisition and outreach manager. There, she built a reputation for promoting diverse and inclusive hiring practices while helping staff projects like Frozen and Frozen 2, Wreck-it Ralph, Moana and Big Hero 6. Additionally, she’s worked across recruitment and production at Sony PicturesImageworks, DreamWorks and her current home, Nickelodeon.

Since returning to Nickelodeon, Eden has developed a recruitment culture for the studio and continued her work in bringing a diverse lens to hiring the best talent at all levels, partnering with internal departments on learning growth and development and sharing with the world what an amazing place Nickelodeon Animation is to work.

Eden’s team has staffed roles on both big kids and preschool animation across television and movies, including SpongeBob SquarePants, The Patrick Star Show, Rugrats, Big Nate, Star Trek: Prodigy, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Monster  High, Transformers: EarthSpark and many more to come.

Seal Team - Behind the Sound
Wednesday 24th August 14:30

CEO and Co-founder at Pressure Cooker Studios, he leads a team of 15 ear-bending creatives with a focus on elevating the sound of media through their music and audio design.

With over 12 years of experience since Pressure Cooker’s inception, James has composed, designed and supervised music and audio on more than 30 long-form narrative projects for studios and networks such as Netflix, Disney, Sony and Syfy.
James is most proud of the work Pressure Cooker Studios had the privilege of collaborating on with local animation clients such as Sunrise Animation, Triggerfish, Strika Entertainment and Formation Animation.
He is currently focused on building a platform for talent to flourish here in South Africa.

Instagram Handle: jamesmatthes & pressurecookerstudio

Twitter Handle: James_matthes

Facebook Handle: james.matthes / https://www.facebook.com/PressureCooker_musicandaudio

Tips and tricks on how to navigate your career path
Thursday 25th August 15:30

Kara is the VP of Training, Outreach, and Artistic Development at DNEG Animation. She is passionate about connecting animation artists and managers with the tools and networks they need to succeed — both at the start of their careers and throughout their professional journeys. Kara spends half of her time talking up DNEG Animation and its fantastic people at industry events and schools, and the other half of her time internally structuring and delivering training programs that support our workforce.

Prior to joining DNEG, Kara conducted workshops and training programs with numerous studios, including DreamWorks Animation (Feature & TV), Netflix Animation, Skydance Animation, Paramount Animation, Reel FX Animation, and Mikros Animation. She also co-hosts You’ll Think of Something, a creative management podcast that provides a space for focused discussion on how to be a productive creative person on a team, in your own personal work, and in your life!

Instagram Handle: @dneganimation
Twitter Handle: @dneg
Facebook Handle: @dnegvfx

The Making of Gale of the Cape 
Friday 26th August 13:30

Jeani Varty is  a  young director and  specializes in storyboarding and Visual development for 2D animated Short films.
Jeani majored in animation and screenwriting and  took a keen interest in all facets of film, producing, cinematography, sound design, production design, wardrobe and visual effects. 

Her first foray into the industry was through storyboarding for Chocolate Moose Studios, based in Canada. Jeani also worked on some larger projects, such as  the advertising team for LEGO Ninjango and The Lego Movie 2. 

Her  experience with a few South African studios led her to Tshimologong’ Mollo animation Academy to coach visual development. She also received further training in France, Paris at Gobelin l’ecole image for storyboarding and Facilitation. 

Her hopes and goals within the industry will always lead back to serving the arts and local community, growing talent and nurturing sustainability in the growing industry through innovation, simplification, strong community bonds and impactful short films.

Short Film Festival Talk
Thursday 25th August 10:30 

Camille is an Artist-researcher and creative documentary filmmaker specialized in African and Afrodescendant Contemporary Art and Cinema. 
A Film programmer and selector and is experienced in the Coordination and management of cultural events. She is a Lecturer at the University Beaux Arts Animation and is often called on to attend and facilitate conferences, moderation of debates, training and film workshops and cultural mediation.

Business milestones that grab the attention of partners and investors
Thursday 25th August at 13:30

Marcin J. Sobczak is the owner of THIS WAY PUBLICITY, has worked in the film industry for over 13 years, supporting sales and production on every step of film development, working on more than 50 films, running international campaigns, and recently handling the international Academy Awards campaigns. 

Some of the titles he worked on include NOMADLAND, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, and THE ENFORCER. Marcin J. Sobczak graduated Film and TV Production Faculty at Lodz Film School in Poland. Now working his way to becoming a Producer.

Wednesday 24th August 15:30

Dianne Makings is the Festival Director of the Cape Town International Animation Festival. 

CTIAF is the largest event of its kind in Africa and has had great success in creating a platform for the art and business of African animation. 

The Festival’s programme is designed to inspire and build both the local industry and audiences, by exposing them to world class talent and content through screenings, talks, workshops, masterclasses and extensive B2B engagements.

Dianne is also a producer / writer and has been privileged to work on a range of commercials, campaigns, short films and development projects.  She just finished  producing the animated short film ‘ Troll Girl’ and is currently producing a short film for Triggerfish Animation Studios

Intro by Colin Payne - Storyboarding and online learning by Nathan Stanton
Friday 26th August 11:30

Colin is the CEO of the Triggerfish Academy. He was deeply involved in the fledgling animation industry in South Africa, being a board member of Animation SA at the time and one of the founders of the AnimationXchange. He then moved into the museum sector as an exhibition designer, gaining experience in education and information design.
He developed an interest in experience and user experience design, becoming a partner at Polymorph, an app development company, where he built and managed their design department as Chief Creative Officer. Following that he became CEO of Sozo Labs, a VR and AR company, after which he joined the Triggerfish Academy.
 He specialises in product development and experience design, and enjoys a cross disciplinary, inventive approach to the development of projects and products and encourages this in the teams he works with.

Storyboarding and Online learning
Friday 26th August 11:30

Nathan Stanton began his career in story at Pixar in June 1996 as a story  artist for Pixar’s second feature film, “A Bug’s Life,” and has worked on  many of the studio’s successes since then. Stanton has contributed his  storyboarding talents to “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” and the  Academy Award® winning feature films “Finding Nemo,” “Ratatouille”,  “WALL•E”, “Brave”, and “Coco”. He also served as Head of Story for  “Cars 2” and “The Blue Umbrella” short.

In the story department, Stanton and his team work very closely with the  film’s director and writer (often times the same person) to create the  story itself. Through storyboards, the team visualizes the film in drawn  sequences and works on the acting, staging, composition and editing to  create the film before it is animated. The story reels created are then  screened for other teams at Pixar, and revised and refined to make the  story as strong as possible.  

Most recently, Stanton has moved on from Pixar and become an  independent contractor - working on several different Animated and  Live-Action projects, story consulting on the Netflix documentary ‘Crip  Camp’, and currently running a 12 week Story Lab program for local  talent in Africa for Triggerfish Animation & Netflix in Cape Town, South  Africa. 

Stanton moved to San Francisco, California in 1992 after earning his  BFA in ‘Character Animation’ from the California Institute of the Arts  and soon got a job as a 2D assistant animator on “The Nightmare Before  Christmas” at Skellington Productions. He went on to work at Colossal  Pictures on a number of projects, also in 2D animation. Stanton then  returned to Skellington Productions to work on “James and the Giant  Peach.” After a short stint at Wild Brain Studios, he was hired at Pixar  where he worked for 22 years.

Superworm 
Wednesday 24th August 10:30

Daniel Snaddon is a half Australian-Chinese, half Scottish-South African, who grew up in Nelspruit, a short drive away from the Kruger National Park and is best known for his work with Triggerfish/Magic Light Pictures and their animated BBC Christmas specials. 

He feels extremely privileged to be working with some of South Africa’s most gifted artists and storytellers, and was delighted to work on the early story-boards for Superworm with directors Sarah Scrimgeour and Jac Hamman.

Producer / Founder of Reel Stories
Wednesday 24th August 15:30

Esther Pearl has spent over 20+ years working in Production Management in the entertainment industry. The majority of Esther’s film career was spent at Pixar Animation Studios where her feature film credits include Academy Award winning films The Incredibles, Wall-e, and Monsters, Inc. Outside her work at Pixar her credits include films such as Titanic, Starship Troopers, Armageddon, and What Dreams May Come. 

During her time working in Feature Film Production she became deeply committed to closing the gender gap in the film and media industry. In 2012 she founded Reel Stories. Reel Stories is the first filmmaking and film training program for young women and female identified people led by industry professionals. Since Reel Stories formation in 2012 Esther has helped produce over 100 short films created by women and female identified people. Over 1000 people have attended Reel Stories film training programs. In 2020, with Esther’s guidance the Reel Stories programs became virtual and within one week they began training people across the country and internationally.

Esther has been honored for her contributions to Bay Area Women in Film, Television, and Media by the San Francisco Women’s Film Institute. She was a semi-finalist for the Echoing Green Fellowship awarded to a social entrepreneur addressing urgent issues in society today. In addition, she has received the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Advanced Imaging Society. 

Panel Discussion 
Friday 26th August 13:30

Isabelle is  Deputy Chairperson of Animation South Africa (ASA);Head of ASA’s Social Impact and Human Capital Innovation; she is  Sole owner and Chief Enabling Officer of EPN Pty Ltd, a Producer and  Consultancy firm.  

Enlightened Poppy Network Pty Ltd (EPN) is a Social Impact Innovation consultancy in the ICT sector  with a specialist focus on Human Capital Innovation. The company strategy relies on two pillars: Differentiation and Value Innovation – looking at various strategic approaches to project, company  and industry innovation as well as animation development and production. 

Isabelle’s 2018 brainchild - the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct - Animation Internship - with a focus on 2 critical areas of  shortage in the animation industry namely, Concept and Storyboard art. These 2 areas help address  Africanization of Imagery and Content in animation. 

She is also the creator of the AnimationSA Road to Commercialisation program, an incubator  created to support black SMMEs in animation and gaming. The incubator aims to develop the  entrepreneurs' business, producing, creative and production skills with the goal of preparing their  projects for TV series broadcast, while the gamers are aided in developing their prototypes. 

Panel Discussion 
Wednesday 24th August 15:30

Kaydee De Villiers specializes in animation development, project management and production and has produced content across multiple platforms, overseeing the creation of content from idea to production greenlight and distribution. Kaydee has also consulted broadly with international animation studios, including on features for Parovos (Russia), Glassworks (Amsterdam and London) and Preymaker (New York).

Her deep expertise in building, managing and maintaining global teams and complex operations transferred well to animation where sourcing international animators and managing an organized and efficient studio workflow are essential. Kaydee is a passionate and compassionate manager and problem solver who believes in collaboration, communication and strategic leadership to drive productivity. Above all Kaydee loves visual storytelling and is continually inspired by the creative environment in which she works. 

Superworm 
Wednesday 24th August 10:30

Jac Hamman is an animator, story and concept artist and director.
He has worked on feature films, series, commercials at some of South Africa’s top animation studios including Triggerfish Animation Studios, Sunrise Productions and Blackginger. He has also produced his own short films for the ATKV, picking up the Goethe Award for his short Stad In Die Mis.
Most recently Jac directed Superworm, at Magic Light Pictures together with directing partner Sarah Scrimgeour and is currently in development on another 25 minute TV special.

Friday 26th 10:30 

BlackGinger Co-founder, VFX Supervisor and Creative Director
Marco is a founding partner of BlackGinger and is widely regarded as one of South Africa's leading visual effects supervisors. With over 20 years experience in the post production industry he has played a key part in 100’s of South Africa’s most iconic commercials and has feature film credits that include Avengers, Mad Max Fury Road, Mowgli and Monster Hunter.

Under his artistic direction, BlackGinger soon became known for it's superior creative and technical work. BlackGinger has continued to lead the field in South Africa and holds its own amongst the best in the world. He has a passion for his craft and a driving fascination with the intersection of the technical and the aesthetic."

Friday 26th August 10:30

Sean is 13-year CG industry veteran, a VFX Supervisor and Lead Lighter at BlackGinger.

With experience working in full feature animation pipelines, cinematic and post-production, Sean has a keen focus on CG cinematography coming from a predominantly Lighting background

Strong knowledge across multiple renderers and software while having worked in most aspects of CG cinematics, commercials, and film - Seans artistic and technical vision brings engaging and enchanting worlds to life."

Panel Discussion
Friday 26th August 13:30

AFDA Film School graduate with a qualification from Varsity College for a Business Management Course. He has run several businesses within the Videography space like Mogul Entertainment which produced MAS Magazine, a Hip Hop DVD Magazine, Tel-a-vision Media which produced music videos and corporate videos for clients like the DTI.

He is currently full-time operations within Toys with Roots responsible for strategic vision and execution. He was featured as the 702 ShapeShifter for January 5th 2022. He is a business speaker, consultant and mentor and is currently consulting with entrepreneurs under the Animation SA umbrella as well as the SA Creative Industries Incubator.

Panel Discussion
Friday 26th August 13:30

An accomplished & dedicated senior level licensing executive with a proven track record of achieving consistent & dynamic results impacting a company’s bottom line growth & success. 

Jacques started out as a sales rep at CIC Video in 1996 representing Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios back in the Blockbuster Video days. In 1999 he entered the brand licensing arena at Americom, then Nu Metro Licensing a division of Johnnic Communications and since 2005 he is still actively involved as partner in profit at Character Licensing & Marketing in his capacity as New Business Development Director, representing license holders such as Sanrio, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks, Moonbug, ZAG; NBCUniversal; Hasbro; Discovery World; Peanuts Worldwide; Dr Suess; American Greetings following onto previously representation in respect of Garfield;  Sesame Workshop; Hit Entertainment, Marvel; IMPS; Elokshini; Shosholoza, Sundowns, Pirates as well as international football clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea & Liverpool; including sports celebrities such as Michael Schumacher & Baby Jake (Jacob Matlala).